The present invention relates to a fixed material transportation apparatus and a liquid fixing apparatus provided with the transportation apparatus, and particularly to technology for sucking and holding a fixed material in a fixing section of a liquid fixing apparatus.
For example, in an ink jet printer, that transports, a recording medium, which is a liquid fixing apparatus, in case that an image comprising ejected many ink droplets such as a solid image is recorded on the recording medium, the recording medium absorbs a large quantity of ink and frequently expands in a wavy manner, that is, cockling is frequently caused. When this cockling is caused, the recording medium rises up, and a gap (paper gap) between the recording medium and a recording head is reduced, so that the splash distance of the ink droplet becomes uneven thereby to cause unevenness in recording, or the recording medium comes into contact with the recording head thereby to be stained.
Recently, an apparatus has been proposed, in which an uneven guide portion having absorption holes is formed on a transporting surface for the recording medium, and the recording medium is sucked through plural sucking holes (through holes) provided for convex portions by a suction pump (refer to Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. JP 11-208045A). This apparatus, as a unit for solving rising-up of the recording medium due to the cockling, sucks the recording medium onto a platen through the sucking holes on the convex upper surface, whereby the rising-up of the recording medium is prevented.
However, in the structure in which the sucking holes are formed in the convex portions on the transporting surface to suck the recording medium, only a part of cockling occurring over the whole of the recording medium in a recording section is sucked, and the suction force is also low. Therefore, it is difficult to prevent the rising-up of the recording medium.